Film Nerd News #11

Welcome to another edition of your favorite weekly film article, iGR‘s Film Nerd News! As you may notice, this week’s edition is a bit late and I always want to apologize to you, the readers, because it’s pretty lame when that happens. That said, there’s only so much I can do to prevent my computer from being a dick and deciding not to send a signal to my monitor so please, just bear with me. In the mean time, I will try my hardest to get the article in for normal release!

Admittedly, in hindsight, I probably should’ve made a point to get this up as it’s own piece sometime during the week since it’s fairly large news regarding the adaptation of a video game franchise but it totally flew under my radar. Anyways, news surfaced mid-week that producer Scott Stuber (Ted) had acquired the rights to produce the long-rumored Gears of Wars adaptation for Epic. They’ve yet to land at a studio but with Stuber on board, that should only be a matter of time. Stuber’s track record has been pretty spotty (I think all I have to do is mention Battleship) but he’s an up-and-coming producer who’s experienced a lot of success in the past 12 months. All of this said, there’s yet to be a video game adaptation that is even remotely good so it would be best not to get your hopes too high.

Continuing the trend from the last Transformers film, not only will there be big robot bad guys but there will also be human ones, as well. For this one, Michael Bay (Pain & Gain) has cast Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) as the main human villain. Not much is known about the character other than the fact that he’s involved in some sort of counter intelligence but Grammer certainly brings a certain panache to the franchise. Admittedly, I’m one of the few people that exist on the internet that doesn’t flat-out hate the Transformers films but with Grammer and the-previously-cast Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games) added to the cast, I must admit I’m a bit more optimistic about this upcoming film than I was about any of the previous ones.

You remember Jane Got a Gun, right? Ya’ know, that film that I talked about for weeks because there was some crazy drama going on behind-the-scenes? Well, I guess they weren’t happy with not being the news because word broke late last week that Bradley Cooper (The Hangover trilogy) was dropping out of the villain role, a role he was only cast in after Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes franchise) dropped out after original director Lynne Ramsey (We Need to Talk About Kevin) left the film by no-showing on the first day of shooting. The film has been incredibly resilient so I don’t see this affecting the film too much (especially since the villain’s scenes aren’t even being filmed for another month) but the producers of the film (including star Natalie Portman [V for Vendetta]) must be tired of all the drama that has some come with it. Cooper’s obviously a pretty busy guy at the moment but the move didn’t make a whole lot of sense until a day later, when it was announced that he would be starring in American Sniper with Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) directing. It sucks that Cooper had to drop out of Jane Got a Gun, especially in favor of doing a different film instead but Cooper’s been attached (as both star and producer) to the film for about a year now so it seems it’s a bit of a passion project for him. Ultimately, you can’t turn down Spielberg so you can’t hate on him too much, even if it just adds to the long list of drama that Jane Got a Gun has already experienced.

I’ve joked with Dylan that I seem to mention Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy) in each of these FNN articles but it’s really true. Between his upcoming film Interstellar and long-time collaborator Wally Pfister‘s (The Dark Knight trilogy) directorial debut Transcendence, there’s pretty much a new casting story each week. This week is no exception as it was announced on Thursday that recent Oscar-nominee Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) was being added to the cast as the film’s third lead, behind the previously cast Matthew McConaughey (Magic Mike) and Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises). If that wasn’t enough, Friday came bearing news that frequent Nolan collaborator Michael Caine (The Dark Knight trilogy) was also joining the cast, marking the sixth (6th!) film the two have done together. It’s not uncommon for directors to continue casting actors they’ve worked with before but this frequent collaboration puts even Martin Scorcese (The Departed) and Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) and/or Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) to shame and there’s been a long-running joke about 2/3 of those guys and how often they work together. That said, Michael Caine is pretty great and is tremendous addition to any cast so it’s not a surprise that Nolan loves working with the guy so much.

The last update I had about the upcoming reboot of The Crow, I mentioned how perfect the casting choice of Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers) was but unfortunately, that proved to be nothing but a silly rumor because this week, it was announced that Luke Evans (The Raven) was being eyed for the titular character. It’s hard for me to say how good he’ll be in the role since I haven’t seen any of his work but Evans is a hot name right now. He’s the villain in the upcoming Fast & Furious 6 film and was recently cast in the titular role for the 257th (I’m not even sure if that’s actually hyperbole or not) Dracula reboot. Supposedly, he was the first choice for the role all along but his increasingly busy schedule wouldn’t allow him to sign on until they shifted the production date, which they did It’s not surprising that they would alter the shooting schedule to try and get him on board, especially given the bad luck they’ve had with casting alternatives but again, I’m just really disappointed that Hiddleston wasn’t given the reins because I think he’d have done a fantastic job. All of that said, Evans is a hot name right now for a reason so maybe he’ll surprise me.

That’s it for this week but be on the lookout for more new content from me today (assuming my computer isn’t being annoying), with TVNN and Trailer Tuesday being up sometime later. In the mean time, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @kyle_igr and the site @igresponsibly!